This invention relates to an electrolytic capacitor containing an electrolyte in which the components of the solvent system are chosen from different hydrogen bonding categories. One component is an acceptor only, while the other component has both acceptor and donor functions in hydrogen bonding.
The first solvents for the electrolyte in electrolytic capacitors were water and ethylene glycol. These first solvents imposed severe restrictions on the temperature range over which the capacitor would operate and limited the electrical properties of the capacitor as well. Beginning in the nineteen-sixties, the non-aqueous solvents such as N,N'-dimethylformamide (DMF), .gamma.-butyrolactone (BLO), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP), and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) began to be used in electrolytes for capacitors. These non-aqueous solvents greatly extended the temperature operating range of the electrolytic capacitor and improved its electrical properties.
The application requirements for the electrolytic capacitor have kept growing more and more stringent and more and more difficult to meet. Since the late sixties, there has grown up a continuous history of teachings in which a cosolvent is added to the major electrolyte solvent. The cosolvent is usually added to achieve some specific purpose. The following are examples from the patent literature of cosolvents which provide desired functions: (1) to lower the freezing point or elevate the boiling point and thereby increase the range of operating temperatures; (2) to either increase or decrease the viscosity of the electrolyte; (3) to improve the solubility of the electrolyte solute; (4) to improve some specific electrical property, e.g. to lower the leakage current, to raise the maximum formation voltage, or to raise the breakdown voltage.
The choices of cosolvents were made in purely Edisonian manner. There was no covering hypothesis or theory to guide the choice. Where success was achieved, it may be properly classified as an accidental showing, since it was guided neither by an understanding nor an elucidation of the role of the solvent or cosolvent in the electrolyte function.
Currently, the demands on the properties of electrolytic capacitors are becoming even more extreme. In particular, the need is to lower the ESRs and impedances of capacitors and to extend dramatically the high frequencies at which the capacitor will operate. To meet such requirements it is essential to lower the resistivity of the electrolyte drastically. This places a real premium on understanding the role of the electrolyte and developing a hypothesis and strategy that will permit minimization of the electrolyte resistivity.
The solvation and conduction processes are extremely complex. The solvent must first dissolve the salt solute and then ionize it to form the conducting species. Superimposed on these processes is a complex series of equilibria for the formation of ion aggregates that include ion pairs, ion triplets, ion quadruples, etc. In aqueous solution these equilibria play a minor role, but in nonaqueous solvents, where the polarities and dielectric constants are lower, these equilibria provide a dominating influence.